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Paul O'Lone - Bodybuilder with Multiple Sclerosis
January 6, 2006

  • I received an email from Paul O'Lone, and was intrigued that you can be a bodybuilder, even with a disability like Multiple Sclerosis. Bodybuilding is for all types of people, and here is a person who is making bodybuilding a positive experience in a tough situation.

  • To fellow Getbig.com readers; I have a story that I would like to share with you! My name is Paul O'Lone I am a bodybuilder, and was Mr. America 1997.

    In 1997 I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, and my MS progressed to me being in a wheelchair. I went back to the gym and began exercising again and realized how unaccessible gyms are for a person in a wheelchair. In 2002, I opened Accessible Fitness, a completely wheelchair accessible gym located in Santa Clara California specializing in working with people with disabilities. I would like to share me and some of my clients success stories with you.

    I am no longer in a wheelchair and will be competing again this year in the Mr. America competition - even if I have to use my cane, I will be there - win or lose to represent people that are physically challenged like myself. Here are some stories that I have, from various writers. To contact Paul, his email is accessibility1@aol.com.

  • Win or Lose By Lori A. Wood

    "I started exercising and joined a gym when I was thirteen years old," says Paul O'Lone, Founder and Executive Director of Accessible Fitness, www.accessiblefitness.com, a fitness center for people with disabilities, located in Santa Clara, California. "In 1979 or '80, somebody gave me a box of bodybuilding magazines, and I saw these pictures of Arnold Schwarzenegger in them and said, 'I would like to look like that someday.' I started exercising, did my first bodybuilding show when I was fifteen and placed 3rd in it. By the time I was twenty-five, I had been in almost seventy amateur bodybuilding competitions."

    For Paul, this competitive drive paid off. In 1993, he won the Mr. North America and Mr. USA titles. "After that, I was getting ready to get my professional bodybuilder's card. It was exciting for me; it had been my dream since I was thirteen to be Mr. Olympia, the biggest show that there is." Unfortunately, it soon became apparent that his body was not up to the challenge. "Around 1994 or '95, I started having numbness, tingling and balance problems," he says. "I knew that something was going on, but didn't know what it was. Finally, in 1997, they diagnosed me with multiple sclerosis. At first, I was doing okay. In 1998, I was even considering competing, because I was doing so well."

    In the next year, however, Paul's physical and mental health had begun to deteriorate. "I fell into a depression, and a lot of that was because the MS had caused me to go completely blind in my left eye, and partially in my right," he explains. (I Lost my vision in my left eye for almost a year, "I think that, along with the fact that I had problems with balance, walking and my bladder contributed to my depression. I was also overmedicated, on antidepressants, sleeping pills and drugs for the nerve pain I was in. There was a whole list of things, and I was afraid to say 'What next?,' because it kept getting worse. I think it was a combination of those things and being sedentary. It's very easy to become inactive, especially when you're drugged up. A lot of times, a lot of these drugs can make you more tired."

    In 1999, he began having difficulty walking, and soon after, he had to use a wheelchair. "I hated my MS. I'd been living in Philadelphia at the time, and had just met my wife, Judy. She told me, 'You have to accept your MS.' I didn't know what that meant. She said, 'You have to accept that you have it, and have to keep doing exercises where the weaknesses are, and begin strengthening those areas that have been affected by the MS.' I finally went back to the gym." "For ten years, I owned an entertainment business in Philadelphia. called A Class Act Entertainment. We had DJs, clowns, et cetera, for parties. I wrapped that up, and in 2001, I came out to California. I was in a wheelchair at the time, and I started rating all of the gyms, based on their accessibility, everything from the bathrooms to the spaces between the gym equipment," Paul remembers. "I started exercising again. With my relapse-remitting form of MS and the use of a home treadmill, my leg strength had started to come back. Stress sets off a lot of MS exacerbations. I was taking some MS drugs, but stopped taking those to focus on more holistic approaches to health, like exercise and a balanced diet. I think of MS as a tiredness disease. It can make you really tired sometimes, so you have the right nutrition and find that balance."

    "I have a four year-old son, Tyler, and it's amazing what I've learned from him," says Paul. "In a child, the core muscles, those of the abdominals, hips and back, are the last to develop, and when you have MS, they're the first to go. In his first year, Tyler liked to do a lot of things on his knees on the floor, and I thought, 'What a great way to exercise.' If you put a pad down and get on your knees, you can do a lot of exercises, without much the risk of falling. For me, being a bodybuilder was about seeing how big, toned and ripped I could be. With MS, it's more about quality of life, and continuing to move my legs through exercise so that I can walk."

    "At Accessible Fitness, we really focus on the core muscles. In a person who has MS, they get really weak, like a flower with a weak stem. If those muscles are weak, the wind blows and you might fall over, just like that flower. Whether you have a spinal cord injury, MS or cerebral palsy, those muscles are always affected and usually cause a lot of problems. For example, if you have a weak hip, you'll fall to the side."

    In 2004, Accessible Fitness opened its doors. "I wanted to open a gym that was completely wheelchair accessible, including the equipment itself. I use the Equalizer 1000 (™) as my gym station. You can work every body part, and the stools pull out, so that a wheelchair can lock into every station. We also have cardiovascular equipment (called a APT Active, Passive Trainer) that moves the legs passively. Some people who have a little bit of leg strength get stronger after using it. I gradually turn the machine down, until they can move it on their own." Paul and Judy serve as personal trainers at the gym, and are both certified in adaptive fitness.

    Accessible Fitness serves people with a wide range of disabilities, including Guillain-Barre´ Syndrome, MS and spinal cord injury. The facility operates on one philosophy: ability, not disability. "When it comes to exercise, no two people are the same. We always make people feel like they can accomplish their exercises, by not giving them things that they can't do. If they can't do it, I'll adapt the exercise so that they can."

    The gym offers a variety of programs to its clients, including workshops. "We do those once a week," Paul explains. "We focus on stretching and weight resistance, and give people exercises that they can do when they're not here. We also have one-on-one personal training sessions, in-home training and a nutritional component, because a lot of people with MS aren't taking care of their diet, so we help them with that. Once a month, we have speakers come in for Living Well events, to talk about things like myelin repair and employment for the disabled." For more information on any of these programs, call (408) 986-1419

    Additionally, the O'Lones are frequent collaborators with the National MS Society, http://www.nmss.org. (Silicon Valley Chapter) "We participate as speakers for the client programs, we do exercise demonstrations and routines and help get the word out about the fight for a cure." For these efforts, Paul received the MS Achievement Award in 2002. "It was an honor. It's mostly given to people who are living with MS, helping others who have it, and maintaining a high quality of life."

    Paul is currently training for the 2006 Mr. America competition. "I'm not as concerned about winning as I was before," he says. "I'm representing those who are physically challenged, like myself." Win or lose, there's no doubt that he will do it with grace. "No matter how difficult MS makes things, you have to remain positive and never give up. That's what exercise does for me; it gives me a sense of control of my life."

  • Accessible Fitness Enhances Abilities at New Site, By Carolyn Schuk

    From the moment you meet him, Paul O'Lone impresses you with his sense of purpose. When he was 13 years old, the bodybuilder and former Mr. North America was given a box of bodybuilding magazines. From that moment he says he knew what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. He participated in his first bodybuilding show at 15 and was winning titles by the time he was 18. In 1997 the 29 year old O'Lone's life took another, equally sharp turn. Just as he was training for bigger competitions and ready to qualify as a professional bodybuilder, he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS).

    Pioneering Adaptive Fitness

    After his diagnosis, O'Lone soon found himself in a wheelchair and declining rapidly. "I was sedentary, and that was one of the main reasons I ended up in a wheelchair," he says. He decided to do something about it and get back into the gym. When he ventured out to the gyms again, he found out that they were not accessible to a person in a wheelchair. O'Lone's "eureka" moment came one day as he tried to reach dumbbells on a rack. "I realized how inaccessible they were for a person in a wheelchair."

    For O'Lone, the obvious solution was to create a wheelchair accessible gym. In doing so, he became a pioneer in the field of adaptive fitness, opening the Bay Area's first wheelchair accessible gym. He began by sharing space in a Santa Clara Chiropractic facility, funding the operation by borrowing money against his home. Active networking with organizations like the Silicon Valley MS Society, Cerebral Palsy, and Santa Clara Valley Medical Hospital.

    Results Speak for Themselves

    O'Lone developed a self-taught rehabilitation program that helped him regain the full use of his legs and overall body strength. Months of work - work that included walking a treadmill every night until he dropped into bed exhausted - helped him literally get back on his feet. "People said, 'You're overdoing it.' But every day I got up and I felt my legs come back, stronger and stronger."

    Today he walks without a cane and spends his days helping people with a variety of disabilities to gain and maintain physical fitness. And his vocation now is sharing what he has learned. He works with clients both at the gym and at home. He gives workshops on adaptive fitness for several support groups. He keeps fees as low as possible to make the gym available to clients on limited incomes. And most of all he emphasizes that believing in the possibilities is key.

    For O'Lone, the support and encouragement of his wife and business partner Judy O'Lone - herself a personal trainer - played a central role. "She was by my side every step of the way," he says. "She wasn't feeling sorry for me, she told me to get up and do something about it." She told me you have a friend, and helped me to believe in myself again. Recognition of these unique achievements has not been slow in coming. Two years ago the Multiple Sclerosis Society awarded him the 2002 MS Achievement Award. At the August 14 event, Assemblywoman Cohn will recognize O'Lone's achievements helping physically challenged people.

    "Paul is an inspiration to me," says Cohn. "He has used his personal experience and struggles to help others overcome physical limitations while emphasizing the importance of exercise as a part of disability management." Justifiably proud of his own achievements, O'Lone is nevertheless quick to spotlight his clients' achievements. "I am inspired by them," he says.

    Curtis Carrell, 43, has a spinal cord injury. He is a mentor to many spinal cord injury clients at Accessible Fitness. This September, the electrical engineer will compete in the Wheelchair division of the South Bay Bodybuilding Competition. Another client Jackie Cimino received the Outstanding Female Athlete of the Year award from the International Tennis Federation. Cimino plays competitive tennis in a wheelchair. Jim Dahl, who has had MS for 22 years and a cancer survivor, took second place in the over-50 division of the Mr. Santa Cruz bodybuilding competition.

    Finally, Lou Ciabattoni and Marty Corcoran, two clients with MS, were able to complete the MS walk after training with Accessible Fitness. Lou now volunteers his time as Marketing Director for Accessible Fitness. Head trainer Angelo Cortopassi, who has had MS for 34 years is an inspiration to Paul and all of his clients. " He never gives up and that's how I want to be", says Paul.

    Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow

    Notwithstanding all these accomplishments, O'Lone isn't standing still. He continues to educate himself about adaptive fitness. Currently he works with Karl Knopf, an Ed. D. who teaches classes on adaptive fitness at Foothill College. Three of the personal trainers who work with O'Lone are also taking Dr. Knopf's class to become more familiar with the unique needs of their clients.And O'Lone has his eye on a second location in the North Bay. His hope is that someday there will be an Accessible Fitness facility in every major U.S. city.

    While the future can't be predicted, one thing is certain: Paul O'Lone's imagination and optimism will continue to give people with disabilities the guidance and encouragement to live more active, more able lives. Or as he often says, "My job is to help people to enhance their abilities through fitness." It's a familiar saying - if life gives you lemons, make lemonade. And few people have made better lemonade from life's lemons than Paul O'Lone.